President Trump told the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in a Tuesday filing that as a former President, he still gets to say which government records belong to him and which do not.
“Rules? Rules? I make the rules.”
— Cockholster, to the court.
Well okay then. That settles it. We might as well just all go home and call it a day.
Tap dancing around the facts.
That should work, judges just love being told what to do.
So the DOJ has to prove he didn’t declassify stuff, yet even if it’s classified, it’s his?
If the judges buy that, I guess the fig-leaf days of pretending to uphold the law are truly behind us.
“The Government also argues incorrectly that President Trump cannot have a possessory interest in documents with classification markings, and therefore, the Government is likely to succeed on appeal,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
This is what we in the law call ipse dixit – or nothing more than an assertion without support in the law.
I haven’t read the 40 page brief yet, but I suspect there is no cited support for this proposition, or if it is cited, twisted beyond recognition.
They’re not even arguing the same case. It took years, but Trump has finally found lawyers as ignorant as he is.
None of the three statutes listed to justify the search warrant involve classification status. I don’t understand why so much of this courtroom drama is revolving around that word. It doesn’t make sense.
If he held national defense secrets that should be enough, according to the Espionage Act which doesn’t mention classified status at all. Although I realize that it’s tricky for the government to prove that in court without revealing the content of the information.
The reporting on this issue should really stop using the term “classified documents” and instead “documents with classification markings.”
Amazing how reductive it all is…
Mar-a-Loser’s Argument:
Heads I win, Tails you lose!
and why stop with documents? just say the entire country, and everything in it belongs to orange jesus,to do what he will with, and let the entire judiciary retire - certainly, his gop enablers would be fine with that
“When you have an Article 2, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab 'em by the classified folder.”
I’ve seen him dance. Don’t go there!
A lot of judges report to him, or at least to the Federalist Society.
screw it … it is ten minutes to Ceaușescu time for this irritating boil on the ass of civilization!
It does if you’re just trying to waste time and draw things out in the hopes of finally getting to appeal it up to a sympathetic court who will let you use it to waste time and draw things out more. In the meantime, you’re hoping the GOP takes the Congress, makes Trump speaker, impeaches Biden and Harris, and then declares him president for life. A plan so cunning you could stick a tail on it and call it a weasel.
You gotta give him credit for trying. I mean, really, who else who fuck around like this is just a game of strip poker?
does there ever come a point in the process when trump or his lawyers are required to explain why he is so hot to keep government documents?
The Eleventh Circuit case also saw a group of Republican state attorneys general file notice on Tuesday that they would submit an amicus brief in support of Trump. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is leading the effort.
Is there such a thing as a hostis curiae brief?